Star Wars_ The New Jedi Order 04_ Agents of Chaos 01_ Hero's Trial - James Luceno [98]
Almost immediately the coralskippers opened fire with their volcano-like guns, loosing a storm of fiery projectiles. The opposing sides met in a dizzying contest of feints, rolls, and loops, punctuated by torrents of laser-fire and streams of deadly plasma. The tactical net grew cacophonous with warnings, exuberant outbursts, and shrill cries for help.
“Blue Four, skip locking onto your six.”
“Thanks for the heads up, Three. I think I can shake him.”
“I’ve got your flank, Four.”
“Blue Eight, can you give me a fix on Blue Ten?”
“Negative, Ten. Things are fast and furious just now.”
“Watch your starboard, Five. Three skips angling in!”
“Scissor right, Five, they’re on you!”
“I can’t shake them! Shields down to 30 percent!”
“Hold tight, Five. I’m on my way!”
Though loud in his right ear, Eyttyn ignored what cries he could. For Blue Squadron it was going to be a matter of avoiding hits and conserving firepower. While individually piloted, the yorik coral fighters were thought to answer at least in part to organic elements aboard the command vessels—what the enemy called yammosks, or war coordinators—like the droid ships of old. Eyttyn knew better than to expect that Blue Squadron could take out the ship, even with proton torpedoes, but as New Republic forces had proved time and again, distraction was often enough to sow turmoil among the coralskipper pilots and slow the responses of their craft.
Yuuzhan Vong fliers relied less on evasive tactics than on the capabilities of their shield-nullifying dovin basals, in any case. As he maneuvered through the swarm, Eyttyn could feel the influence of that macabre, biogenetically hatched technology tugging at the X-wing’s shields with invisible fingers. The R2 unit could feel the tug, as well, and signaled its dismay with flurries of translated code that scrolled across the cockpit display screen.
Another thing to ignore, Eyttyn told himself.
With two skips closing on him, he rolled the X-wing up on its stabilizers and veered away to starboard. In the same instant, his wingmate peeled away in an abrupt bank, then dived to rejoin Eyttyn on the original approach vector. Another pair of coralskippers swooped beneath him, but only one came about in pursuit and was easily evaded.
Eyttyn glanced at his range finder. Already the frigate was growing larger in his canopy, but it had yet to open fire, and probably wouldn’t until Blue Squadron began their runs against it.
Off to Eyttyn’s left, Blue Four began to wobble under the influence of two skips that had fastened themselves to the X-wing’s tail. Eyttyn’s wingmate dropped back to loose a burst at one of the craft, but it refused to take the bait. Hoping that Blue Four’s lead pursuer might cut across his own path, Eyttyn decreased velocity, but the coralskipper pilot divined Eyttyn’s tactic and was in and out of his sights in a flash.
In a dazzling display of evasive maneuvers, Blue Three broke from the pack to speed to his wingmate’s aid. Halfway there, however, destructive projectiles sought and found him, blowing the X-wing to pieces.
The two coralskippers chasing Blue Four accelerated, settled into kill position, and opened fire. Caught by an ellipsis of blazing missiles, Blue Four vanished in a roiling of crimson fire and white-hot gas.
Eyttyn summoned his remaining ships into a weaving, mutually protective circle. Laser bolts from Blues Eight and Nine sheared off chunks of an encroaching skip; crippled, the ship spiraled off to port and exploded.
Not a moment later, Blue Six made a kill, but soon found himself trapped at the center of intense return fire. Shields pilfered, the X-wing sustained hit after hit, splitting into four pieces before disappearing from sight.
Eyttyn glanced at his primary monitor. Bright red damage icons peppered the screen. “Stay with your wingmates,” he warned over the net. “Conserve fire until we’re in the pocket.”
He snap-rolled to bring one Yuuzhan Vong killer